Radio Curious

Pushing limits in music and thought is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious as we visit with Trimpin, a man who makes music from unusual instruments.  He is the star of documentary film about his life’s work Trimpin, who uses a single word for his name received a Mac Arthur Genius Grant 1997.

He asserts that he is trying to “go beyond human physical limitations to play instruments in such a way that no matter how complex the composition or the timing, it can be pushed over the limits.”  The music, he said, starts with a sound in his head.  He then transforms that notion for us to hear.  The film Trimpin will be show at the Mendocino Film Festival the first weekend of June 2012, in Mendocino California.

I spoke with Trimpin from his studio in Seattle, Washington, on May 19, 2012, and asked him to comment on the characterization where he is described as a mad-scientist, a magician, or possibly a tour guide.

Rather than recommending a book, Trimpin said that he gave up reading sometime ago and replaced it with thinking.  He’d “rather think than read,” he said.

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Sean, a four year old child living with his parents in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco in 1969 was the star of a short film about his life. He spoke openly his free-spirited parents, his crash pad home, watching cops bust head, and smoking pot.  Ralph Arlyck made the film while a student at San Francisco State University.

Thirty years later he located Sean and his family, and created the film Following Sean. Ralph Arlyck, our guest on this edition of Radio Curious has produced and directed more than a dozen prizewinning films.  Following Sean, is a film as much about Ralph Arlyck’s life as it is about Sean’s.  It will be shown at the Mendocino Film Festival, held in Mendocino, California, the first weekend of June, 2012, where Arlyck will receive the Albert Maysles Award for Excellence in Documentary Film Filmmaking.

Ralph Arlyck and I visited by phone from his home in Poughkeepsie, New York, on May 14, 2012, and began when I asked him how Following Sean also became a story of Arlyck’s own life.

The film Ralph Arlyck recommends is “Patience (After Sebald,)” a British Film by Grant Gee.

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As we all know every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  The reaction, however is not necessarily equal in time or unity.  It’s often spread over time with serial impacts.

In this edition of Radio Curious we focus on the treatment of workers in the automobile industry in the United States beginning in the early years of the 20^th century.  The story is portrayed in “Brothers on the Line,” a film about Walter, Ray and Victor Reuther, three brothers from West Virginia who organized the United Auto Workers Union beginning in the 1920s.  With access to the National Archives, the Wayne State University Labor History Library and family records, Sasha Reuther, Victor’s grandson, directed the film.  It chronicles the working conditions and the successful strikes at the big three auto plants in Michigan; the political power of the United Auto Workers Union, and its involvement in the civil rights movement.  It also explains why Detroit, Michigan became the richest city in the United States in the 1950s.

“Brothers On The Line” will be shown June 3, 2012 at the Mendocino Film Festival, in Mendocino, California.

Sasha Reuther and I visited by phone from his office in New York City on May 7, 2012.  We began when I asked him what happened once the automobile became a useful, if not necessary tool of life.

The book that Sasha Reuther recommends is “U.A.W. and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945 -1968,” by Kevin Boyle.

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We humans are a lot like the other primates on earth, but because we don’t associate with them, we often assume that our interpersonal behavior, how we make friends, work together, interact with strangers, relate to our spouse is the produce of our unique personalities and environment.

In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Dario Maestripieri, author of “Games Primate Play: An Undercover Investigation of the Evolution and Economics of Human Relationships.”  He’s a professor Comparative Human Development, Evolutionary Biology, Neurobiology and Psychiatry, and Behavior Neuroscience at the University of Chicago.

Professor Maestripieri and I visited by phone from his office in Chicago, Illinois on April 16, 2012 and began with a description of the close relationship human have with other primates.

The book he recommends is “Auto-Da-Fe,” by Elias Canetti.

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Are you or do you know someone who is tired of endlessly negotiating with a 5 year old? How about taking a 3 year old to a restaurant? Children are too often seen and treated as small adults, dressed as adults, and sometimes have their lives planned out for them to be as busy as adults. Treating children as people older than they are — overlooks the child’s cognitive abilities. This can be a lead to unsatisfying and sometimes traumatic relationships between the child and the parents.

“Parents in Charge: Setting Healthy, Loving Boundaries for You and Your Child” was written by Dr. Dana Chidekel in 2002, She’s a child psychologist near Los Angeles, California. Dr. Chidekel argues that the developing brain of toddlers does not give them the capacity to respond to being placed on equal ground with their parents. She encourages parents to assume their rightful role of authority.

I spoke with Dr. Dana Chidekel in the winter of 2002 from her office in Southern California. We began our conversation by talking about the developing brain of young children. I asked her what the brain of a young child is able to assess and not able to assess.

The books that Dr. Chidekel recommends for young children are the Bernstein Bears series.  The book she recommends for older people is “Seabiscuit.”

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Standing in the knee-high, flowing waters of Gibson Creek in Ukiah, California we visit with some of the 35 Volunteers from Watershed Stewards Project, The Friends of Gibson Creek and The California Department of Fish and Game, in this edition of Radio Curious.  The project, organized by Chelsea Neill, an Americorps Volunteer is meant to stop the erosion of a cliff at a bend in the creek that was ruptured by a falling tree.

We visited on April 14, 2012.  First I spoke with Chelsea Neill who describes the work being done, then with Linda Sanders of The Friends of Gibson Creek and finally with Chelsea’s mentor Dan Resnick of the California Department of Fish and Game.

You can hear the water running under our feet and the snapping sounds of volunteers working to build a barrier made of willow branches to retain the cliff.   We begin our conversation with Chelsea Neill explaining why this area was chosen for creek restoration.

The book Chelsea Neill recommends is “Deep Survival:  Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why,” by Laurence Gonzales.  You can listen to a Radio Curious interview with Gonzales about the book here.

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In 1990 Earth First! activists from Mendocino County were on a road trip to rally support for a summer effort to help protect old growth redwoods in Northern California. For years prior, logging practices took well over 90% of the original redwood growth in the area. Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari, the organizers, were in their car in Oakland, California, in May 1990 when a bomb exploded underneath the driver’s seat where Judi Bari sat.  She and Darryl Cherney were immediately arrested and suspected of bombing themselves. Although charges were never filed against the two, authorities have yet to locate the bombers.  Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari sued and won a jury award of four million dollars against the Oakland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for violating their 1st and 4th amendment rights.

The film, “Who Bombed Judi Bari?” produced by Darryl Cherney, attempts to answer the question posed in the title; it examines their struggle with law enforcement in finding the real bomber and chronicles the history of the local environmental movement here in Northern California.

Christina Aanestad, the Radio Curious assistant producer spoke with Darryl Cherney about the film he produced and his experiences resulting from the bombing. They visited on March 29, 2011, at the studios of KMEC radio, inside the Mendocino Environmental Center, which has a long history of supporting social and environmental movements, including Earth First! They began when Christina asked Darryl Cherney to describe the attempted assassination against him and Judi Bari.

The website for Darryl Cherney’s film is www.whobombedjudibari.com.

The book he recommends is, “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess” by Alan Shlain.

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Cheating Justice: The criminal activity of President George W. Bush, and his Vice President Dick Cheney, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious.  Our guest is Elizabeth Holtzman, author of “Cheating Justice: How Bush and Cheney Attacked the Rule of Law and Plotted to Avoid Prosecution and What We Can Do About It.”

A former District Attorney of Brooklyn New York, and former congresswoman from New York, Holtzman was a member of the House Judiciary Committee that voted to Impeach President Nixon. Her book, “Cheating Justice,” concludes former president George W. Bush and top members of his administration conspired to violate the laws of the United States. From illegal wiretapping to authorizing torture, Holtzman analyzes what her research shows to be serious criminal acts of the Bush presidency.  She asserts that without accountability our democracy is a stake.

Elizabeth Holtzman and I visited by phone from her office in New York City on April 2, 2012, and began when I asked her to describe the crimes set forth in her book.

The book she recommends is “The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss,” by Edmund De Waal.

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Radio Curious brings you an archived interview with the late, veterinarian, Frank Grasse, who under the pen name Charlie Freed wrote “Vet Tails: Small Stories, From A Small Town, Small Animal Veterinarian.”  In his book, Grasse, or perhaps Freed described the daily emotional roller-coaster of working 35 years in animal medicine and shares with us what he learned about the bond between us and our animals.

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